Immigration

On May 11th we finally moved into our little house in Wood-River. We arrived there on the 11th of this month after 17 days on sea and another 3 days and 4 nights on the train. It is a long and difficult journey for people who are not used to it. Especially on sea the days passed by very slowly. Although the weather was exceptionally beautiful –as one rarely sees on a passage – the voyage took very long because the wind was against us and also our ship was not at all a high speed boat. I was the one who was put most at his mettle at sea. For a period of 6 days, I could not eat a crumb. I even could not drink a drop of fluid. When I was thinking of food, I started vomiting. Every time when I saw bread, meat or some other kind of food, I had to turn my head away in order not to vomit. Derwa and Smets were not troubled by it at all. And all others just had a little bit of a trouble. When we arrived in New York, I was back on my feet again

Taken from the letter written by Isadore Haumont on May 13, 1883
Read this and the many other interesting letters from Custer Co to Belgium

Below you will find links to Passenger lists, Immigration and Naturalization paper.
Only names are of family members linked to this web site and their traveling companions are included in the list.